
In February 1934, the steamship Chelyuskin was crushed by ice and sank in the Chukchi Sea. The ship's crew and members of the scientific expedition landed on a drifting ice floe, where they remained for two months. How did people live on the ice floe? How did they cope with loneliness and dispel dark thoughts? In addition to work, when the weather was good, they played soccer, volleyball, and town ball. They went on ski trips. They read. They managed to save four books: Pushkin's poems, Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha," Hamsun's "Pan," and the third volume of Sholokhov's "Quiet Don." We reminisced about our former lives, watched the northern lights, fought illness, dreamed, froze... In the evenings, we listened to a precious Marlene Dietrich record—we managed to save the gramophone, but only with two records. We published a wall newspaper called "We Will Not Surrender." They tried to be witty, played pranks. They created a choir...
Directed by Mikhail Yershov, The Chelyuskinites leans on a strong ensemble — Aleksandr Lazarev, Pyotr Velyaminov, Igor Komarov — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.
The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1985.
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